Hi. I’m Alison.
Should we date?
Here’s a little bit about me.
Basics
Age: 39
Height: I’m 5’10” (177.80 cm)
Location: I’m based in Boston, MA, USA but have been nomadic since October 2023.
Hometown: Grover Beach, California (population 12,711 and 3.5 hours drive to a major airport).
Education: BS Conservation & Resource Studies, UC Berkeley ‘09; Master of Public Health, Boston University ‘19
Other places I’ve lived: Asheville, NC, Brussels, Amsterdam, NYC, Austin, TX, and San Diego, CA.
Languages: Spanish (int.), Dutch (beg.), French (beg.)
Profession: I work in child trauma prevention and health science education. (This makes me exceptionally fun to talk to at dinner parties.)
Kids: none
Pets: fluffy cats and a dog in the past but not presently; would love a cat or dog some day again when I’m done traveling.
What kind of weird am I?
I will run a 5k on New Year’s Day (and have run a couple of marathons).
I’m trying to see as many national parks as I can and wouldn’t mind a van life.
I’ve constantly got an audiobook going while I do the dishes, fold laundry, commute by car or bike, or on a long walk or run.
I will charm your parents with my deep knowledge and love of 70s Yacht Rock (especially Steely Dan).
I have some sensory sensitivity issues, for example, to overhead lights.
I like taking entheogens recreationally and for healing/personal growth.
I do a lot of intentional challenges…like this one. (Full list here).
I’m most productive around other people and enjoy the buzz of coffee shops.
I will not stfu about social justice issues.
I like to host theme and costume parties frequently.
I like electronic dance raves and music. My favorite artist is Deadmau5.
A random thing on my mind lately…
Why is the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad so popular in the US?
This book has been on the best-seller list for a long time and its at every airport bookstore, prominently displayed. It has sold over 32 million copies.
The book seems to have been written to con people into joining multi-level marketing (MLM’s) schemes.
His main point (yes, unfortunately, I’ve read it) is that humans are stupid and lazy so you have to exploit their labor. He also says that his “poor dad’s” choice to be a college professor is lame because he doesn’t make as much money as his “rich dad’s” business exploiting people.
How much longer will it be a best seller?
A random fact I love…
In a study published in 2017, researchers were able to influence study participants to have more progressive views by first making them feel safe before answering the questionnaire.
Another random thing on my mind lately…
Fossil fuel obsession has made just about every facet of American life intolerable. We want walkable cities but we can’t because car-based cities support oil interests.
We’d like to have healthy, nourishing food and local food systms but we can’t because petroleum dominates US agriculture—from the inputs to the fueling of the tractors that tend to monocrops that devastate soil ecology.
We’d like clean air but…(cars).
We’d like our places to sound like chirping frogs, birds singing, and rivers flowing but instead every city and town sounds like cars.
We’d like the genocide in Palestine to stop but…(Middle East oil interests).
We’d like life on Earth to flourish but…climate crisis from global warming.
Life philosophy…
“The meaning of life is just to be alive.” —Alan Watts
“The true opposite of depression is not gaiety or absence of pain, but vitality: the freedom to experience spontaneous feelings.” —Alice Miller
I’m not concerned with needing every experience to be pleasant. In tough moments, I remind myself, “Feeling is a gift and I can feel this difficult feeling fully. That’s feeling alive.”
I like learning new things. I like seeing new places. I love playing games and laughing with people. I love creating enchanting experiences with others like costume parties. I like making things: visual art, crafts, podcasts, blogs, photos.